About Gender. Notice: You can find the original article here
Whatever sense of self-awareness, especially in terms of being a boy or a girl, a new born baby has, its parents have very strong ideas about the sex of their child. In many cultures, of course, it is a matter of shame for a woman to produce a girl baby, particularly if she has not produced a son. The technology now available to discover the sex of a fetus has produced a rush of abortions in some countries, where the cost of providing a dowry can mean financial ruin for a family.
However in a study conducted in a London hospital,(1) first time Western mothers who had a boy baby demonstrated more satisfaction than they did for a girl baby.
A group of nurses were studied, going about their daily work. They were seen to give more attention to upset boys than girls, and interacted them more in general.
On an everyday level, even though unisex baby clothing is becoming common, mothers still get upset if someone becomes confused. When complimenting a mother on her baby, one has to be very careful about the use of 'he' or 'she' until one has managed, tactfully, to ascertain the truth. Moreover, although we dress both boys and girls in jeans and tee shirts, we still cut their hair differently.
It has been shown that parents in general, from the moment of birth, see boys as firmer, better co-ordinated, stronger and more alert, while girls are seen as smaller weaker and prettier, even if boy is a six pounder and girl is strapping eight pounder.
As the child becomes a toddler, parental expectations tend to become more marked. Parents tend to provide different nursery furnishings. The first thought when a boy is born is often about his first train set, but in any case, his toys tend to be biased towards motor cars and various things that buzz and whirr, while girls are encouraged to enjoy cuddly things, and dolls that can be dressed and undressed. One point of view suggests that what is bought is the sort of thing the child would like according to his, or her, 'nature.' Another is that the choice is biased by what is culturally right and proper.
There is only space to show a sample of the sort of studies that were used to support the social learning paradigm, what has been derided by evolutionary geneticists as the Standard Social Science Model. For instance a great deal of attention has been paid to the effect on girls of gender stereotyped attitudes in schools.
Even if we could quote every study that has ever been published, they, in common with all psychology only survey external behaviours. They say nothing about emotional issues, and the extreme complexity of each individual's social network, all of which contribute to building the individual's view of the world.
But there is one thing. How do adults perceive babies if they don't know whether they are boys and girls?
In a study by Condry and Condry(2) a group of people were asked to describe the emotional behaviour of some 9 month-old infants, who had been startled by a Jack-in-the-box. Those, who had been told the infants were boys, described the reaction as anger. If they thought the infants were girls, they described the reaction as fear.
Similarly, if they thought some babies were boys, they encouraged activity, and chose male type toys; if they thought the babies were girls, they interacted in a more impersonal and nurturant way.
Thus we make attributions based on the child's perceived sex, and have expectations which the child reflects.
The suggestion is, that boys may react with anger, and girls with fear, because we expect them to. All through our lives we tend to behave to match the attributions people make from social stereotypes because, to behave untypically, sets us apart. We are unconsciously behaving how we are expected to. To do otherwise, puzzles and alarms people. In effect, we are merging with, and adapting to our environment. Otherwise we run the risk of being labelled eccentric unless, of course, we are able to make a virtue of it.
The question, then, is "If there was no such thing as gender, if we had no expectations of children biassed by their sexual label, would gender specific behaviour disappear?"
Bibliography and good reading.
- Lyberger-Ficek and Sternglanz (1975) uncited reference in Gross.R.D., (1987) Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour, Hodder and Stoughton.
- Condry, J., Condry, S., (1976) Sex Differences: A study in the Eye of the Beholder Child Development 47 (1976) 817 in Fausto Sterling, A., (1992) Myths of Gender, Biological Theories about Women and Men, (p150) New York: Basic Books
Citation:
Bland. J. (1998) About Gender: Social Learning Theory.
http://www.gender.org.uk/about/02psycho/22_socln.htm